#1) I would have LOVED to have been the intern that found the Bill O'Reilly melt down video in Inside Edition's VHS Cassette Library. Watch below for a classic Stephen Colbert spoof (which includes the original in its entirety.) "Fuck it! We'll do it live!"

May 28, 2008

Is it wrong that I (not so) secretly hope that the Red Wings lose to the Penguins tonight so that there is no way on God's green earth that the Stanely Cup Finals could be decided the same night I have pre-set plans to go to the Sex and the City premier?

I mean, I made plans and bought an AIRPLANE ticket to fly half way across the country to go to this premier, so I think I'm within my bounds to hope the Stanley Cup Finals turn into a bit of a competition. Is it too much to ask? Can I get a witness?

May 22, 2008

Forget John McCain's age, Hillary Clinton's tears in New Hampshire, Barack Obama's pastor and Wolf Blitzer's "best political team on television!" - what is truly remarkable about this election season is the way the social media is redefining the way that we connect with campaigns, advocate for candidates, and interact with each other.

1) Peer to peer (or WOM) is still the most effective way to spread messages and incite action.

2) The Web 2.0 boom in the last four years has made it possible to connect with your "long tail" of supporters - sending them the messages they want to hear, via the delivery mechanism that they choose (email, text, Facebook, etc.) This has resulted in faster, more powerful results and involvement.

3) The decreased barrier to participation online is great - but successful campaigns in the social media space need to be a part of a broader social media strategy, or a tangent of a diversified communications plan.

4) That plan is imperative because slapped on social media tactics won't hold an individuals attention for long. Whether you're dealing with a 16 month lead up to a general election, or an advocacy campaign with a big annual push - social media tools (plural! Yes, we're talking about more than a stand along Facebook page!) give you the ability to create a "movement" around your issue or candidacy.

5) Movements get beyond fundraising and into action - which is really what's at the heart of successful philanthropy, politics and advocacy.

May 19, 2008

When doing research (for work) I really am constantly amazed at the high number of truly crappy sites that are still on the Internets - and being used! It's like a certain segment of the population came online right after Forrest Gump and never bothered to advance to the next best things. I understand that it's harder for some groups to migrate to new technologies, but seriously.

Banner ads also occasionally fall into this stuck in the 90s category - especially travel ads for some reason. There are some I see and truly feel that there is no way that what they're advertising is NOT a scam. Case and point this lovely ad for the Virgin Islands shared with the world by Where's My Jetpack? You know what, you click on that ad and buy anything and you deserve to wake up in a tropical land, in a tub full of ice missing one of your kidneys.

Thanks to ABF for sending me this NPR story about Heinz's efforts to grow sweeter tomatoes as they attempt to minimize the use of high fructose corn syrup (or HFCs) in their ketchup.

While I would love to think that Heinz wants to cut out the HFC because, I don't know, it's like one of the worst things you can put in your body, they're actually doing it because of the rising cost of corn. Four years ago, a bushel of corn cost $2, now it costs $6. That increase has resulted in HFC procurement accounting for 10% of the cost of a bottle of Heinz ketchup.

To achieve a sweeter tomato, Heinz is cross-breeding tomatoes, meaning that they produce hybrid seeds through the laborious process of cutting off "the pollen-bearing part of one flower by hand, then dust the flower with pollen from a different plant." The process is refined over several generations and then used commercially - as long as it doesn't sacrifice color, consistency or yield.

I'm seriously convinced that all of my internal organs are pickled by HFC and will probably donate my body to Heinz when I die so they can study the long term effects of ketchup consumption. So I don't care why Heinz is doing this, I think it's great news.

(Side bar, in the NPR story some guy named David Ciesinski "Vice President, Ketchup" is quoted several times. Um, how the hell do I become Vice President of Ketchup? David, call me.)

May 11, 2008

Since I've sent my mom two cards in the last four weeks, I thought I'd do something a little different for Mother's Day and make a public declaration of her awesomeness right here. (Lest you think I'm a bad daughter who didn't mail a card in time, I assure you I've been planning this for well over the 2 - 3 business days it takes to get a card from DC to Michigan.)

Here are some of the cool things about my mom you may not know:

* The Travel Agency of Val: This woman can find deals, change seats, coax information out of airlines and book flights like nobody's business.

* Highway to the Danger Zone: She drives really fast sometimes, which I think is hilarious.

* Stuff This: She is a great cook. The Atkin family stuffing recipe, peanut chicken, and meatloaf are just some of the highlights. (Everything except that casserole with the potato chips on top, which I hate but everyone else likes. And that soup we fed to deer when I was 6.)

* She's Always Right: Even when she's wrong, she's right. This used to annoy me when I was a teenager, but now I just hope I'm that smart when I grow up. (Which apparently has still not happened...)

* iMom: She got an iPhone (Edit: Before me!) She's on Facebook (where my friends Friend her, which kind of says it all.) LinkedIn, and once said, "We have GOT to get your father on Dopplr."

I could go on, and on, and on, and on like about that time she went out and bought me Excedrin when I was quite literally dying of hangover, or when she drives me the airport at 4:45am, or how she cooked me seperate meals as a kid because I was such a "god damn picky eater," or when she sends me fun things in the mail out of the blue. But I'll end it here - Happy Mother's Day Mom! I love you - thanks for all that you do and raising us right.

May 10, 2008

My beloved Red Wings are in the Western Conference finals, battling it out with the Dallas Stars for a berth in the Stanley Cup Finals. This is pretty familiar territory for Hockeytown (Detroit) with the Wings having won 14 division championships in 19 seasons, and three Stanley Cups in the last 11 years.

However, Wings fans have been getting tons of shit from the sporting world for their inability to fill seats at The Joe. If you watch the televised games there are pockets of empty seats at every level. As the Red Wings have become something like the Yankees of hockey everyone's first instinct is to rip the fans for not being "into the playoffs" until later rounds, for taking the team's accomplishments for granted because of past successes, for not following as closely because our Canadian all-stars have been replaced with foreign athletes, for not appreciating a team that's more finesse than brawn, for losing faith because of a few seasons of bombing out in early playoff rounds, etc. Even Mitch Albom, the favorite son of South Eastern Michigan got into the fray with his column, "Wings come out big, so why don't all the fans?" One only need look at the hundreds of comments the column generated to figure out why those seats are empty.

"'Why can't we fill empty seats' indeed. $200 for tickets is prohibitive. Gas is expensive. Parking
alone was $15 in the first round, and if it's anything like ticket
prices, it goes up each round and becomes exorbitant. We won't even
talk about concessions or souvenirs. Have you not noticed
we're in our own personal little mini-depression here in Michigan, you
blind, self-congratulatory son-of-a-(rhymes-with-Mitch)?? We are trying
to feed ourselves and our family and put braces on teeth and get back
and forth to work. We don't have the $800 it would take to take a family of four to see a game."

"No dough to blow at the Joe. Times
ARE tough, my family has cut back to not go under, and I have to carry
my clients. CABLE is a luxury we've got rid of. Like it or not, the
WINGS are a luxury product, and while I love them to pieces I can't pay
for them."

Check out more comments here. Michigan's unemployment rate is still above 7% - nearly 3% higher than the national average of 4.9% - and that doesn't count workers that have left the state in search of new jobs. Michigan has lost 596,000 of the 900,000 manufacturing jobs that existed 10 years ago. While a few commenters cite the call for a boycott "against Detroit" in protest of the cities arguably corrupt Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, the vast majority are just ordinary Michigan folk who have hit hard times and simply don't have the money to take the family to the game.

So, I'll add my voice to the legions of Hockeytown faithful who are following the Red Wings at home or from afar when I say, "Back the fuck up."

May 06, 2008

Recently I've been getting an influx of "friend" invites from people that I don't actually know on Facebook. Some of these people are industry folks who are connected to one or more of my colleagues. Others are individuals that, I imagine, found me through Twitter or read this blog. However, I've decided to draw a line in the sands of social media and not be friends with anyone on Facebook that I don't know in real life.

As a college student in the Boston area in the early 2000's I had access to Facebook early, and have been a member since 2004 (if my memory serves me correctly.) As such, I've never used Facebook as a "promotional" platform for my career or my blog. I've used it strictly as a way to keep up with friends, and as such it contains information and photos about me that are intended for that audience. That's not to say we need to have been besties since 1996 for you to get an add - but it does mean that I need to have met, and liked you, in real life for us to be Facebook friends. I love this blog and my readers, but there is a limit to how much of myself I want to share with the public at large.

To be my virtual friend, you have to be my real friend first. Do you agree with this approach? Disagree? Does this turn you off as a Catch Up Lady reader? I'm not above making exceptions to this rule, and am curious what you all think.

My good friend Laura hasn't given me a good blog tip since HatsOfMeat.com , so I kind of thought she'd forgotten about me. But then she went and dropped the Dikipedia bomb on me.Dikipedia.org, "a wiki of dicks," is a user generated Wikipedia take-off that seeks to provide the public with an in-depth look at the best known dicks in the public eye. Some highlights:

David Blaine: Blaine began his career by bringing street magic to the public,
performing card tricks and growing a goatee, a facial hair
configuration popular among dicks. Using common props like coins, cards
and cigarettes, Blaine entertained unsuspecting pedestrians in
television specials like “David Blaine: Street Magic,” “David Blaine:
Magic Man,” and “David Blaine: Listen, Asshole, I’m Late For Work So
Get Those Coins Out Of My Face.”

Sean Penn: Though Irish Catholic on his mother’s side, and descended from
Lithuanian rabbis on his father’s, Penn was raised in a secular home,
an upbringing typically described as 'agnosdick.'

Mark Zuckerberg: In 2004, he created the social networking website Facebook, becoming a
celebrity to college students nationwide. Since that time, Zuckerberg
has been on the fast track toward dickhood, culminating in his
achieving full-fledged dick status in late 2007, though many argue that
he has actually been a dick the entire time.

Mitt Romney: Mitt has been married for 38 years to Ann Romney, who is a convert to
her husband’s religion. They have five sons, one of whom is named
“Tagg.” According to Mitt, the sons, who are all eligible to fight in
Iraq, are serving their country by "helping me get elected.” The Army’s
loss is the Internet’s gain, because the brothers host a blog,
creatively called Five Brothers, which features such America-serving stories as, “Soup Recipes Submitted To AnnRomney.com,” and “An Easy Halloween Costume.” Five Brothers is a political must-read, right after the Daily Kos. Also, once again, one of Romney’s sons is named “Tagg.”

I could go on, but I think you get the point. There is lots of good stuff here. I love it when people use social media to highlight the staggering dickitry that plagues this earth.